Emergency Phone Calls

Isaac, now seven years old, asked me the other day, what they should do if I ever got hurt.  This made me realize that it had been a long time since we had talked about emergency phone calls.

First, I had to teach him how to unlock my old-school cell phone.

Then, I gave him the list of emergency phone numbers.  The pictures on the list help early-readers to clarify who they're calling.

And he practiced.

Thanks, Isaac, for reminding me to have a plan.

Safety First

This week we focused on safety.  The library had lots of helpful books.  We came home with three books on safety and several books on policemen and firefighters.

There was one cool "Book Worms" series called "What's Inside?"  Along with "What's Inside a Firetruck?" and "What's Inside an Ambulance?", we read "What's Inside a Police Car?"

While we read, the kids had lots of questions:  "Why are the firemen breaking the door down?" "Why do they need a ladder?" "Do policemen get married?"  And so on.

We took a few opportunities throughout the week to reinforce the theme.  We had the kids race to count all of the smoke detectors in our house. 

Adel showed the kids our fire extinguisher.  Even though it still was at 60% capacity, we decided it was a good time to buy a new one...and put the old one to good use!

The kids were nervous but very interested.

And by the looks of it, Adel had a pretty good time with it too!

Where'd they go?!

I also made a list of emergency phone numbers for the kids on the refrigerator.  911 is at the top but next to a photo of the person, there are the phone numbers of other family members and friends they can call for help.  I had them practice calling Mimi and Boppa and Daddy on his cell phone.

We finished off the week by attending an event hosted by the local fire and police departments.  The kids got to see inside a police car and go inside a fire truck.  They came prepared with questions to ask:

Isaac to the firefighter: How many houses have you burned?

Abby to the firefighter: What's the pretty princess you know?

Both the police officers and the firefighters were very gracious answering all of our questions.  They also gave the kids lots of freebies.

When we got home, the kids had to play dress up with their new firefighter helmets.

Isaac found an "armored" vest and is using his light saber as his fire hose.